A train hurtles from Lashio, end of the Burma Road, towards Rangoon, with a bunch of Occidental travelers with a bunch of back stories. There are also Axis spies on board, with information on a munitions dump. Its destruction can close the Burma Road. When one of the passengers turns up as a corpse, enters Inspector J. Edward Bromberg, legendary founder of the Group Theater as Inspector Vinpore, with two Sikhs, to uncover the murderer.
It's a very cheap Universal mystery, shot entirely on sound stages, with some obvious back projection. It's got two things going for it: a cast of competent B players, including Kent Taylor, Irene Hervey, Henry Stephenson, George Zucco, and Fay Helm, and a script by Stuart Palmer, best known for his Hildegarde Withers mysteries.
Clearly intended to fill out a double or even a triple bill, it uses every cliche in the book, it certainly wastes neither money or time in its 62 minutes. Producer Paul Malvern was expert at turning out these cheapies, and in ex-editor John Rawlins, he had a director who could bring it in on budget. Despite those shortcomings, the performers, like many unremembered actors during Hollywood's factory era, hit their marks, speak their lines, and don't trip over the furniture, making this a fine time-waster.
It's a very cheap Universal mystery, shot entirely on sound stages, with some obvious back projection. It's got two things going for it: a cast of competent B players, including Kent Taylor, Irene Hervey, Henry Stephenson, George Zucco, and Fay Helm, and a script by Stuart Palmer, best known for his Hildegarde Withers mysteries.
Clearly intended to fill out a double or even a triple bill, it uses every cliche in the book, it certainly wastes neither money or time in its 62 minutes. Producer Paul Malvern was expert at turning out these cheapies, and in ex-editor John Rawlins, he had a director who could bring it in on budget. Despite those shortcomings, the performers, like many unremembered actors during Hollywood's factory era, hit their marks, speak their lines, and don't trip over the furniture, making this a fine time-waster.